Experiment
by AznFlyingKitty
Summary: Cloud thought that the SOLDIER mako shots were for enhancing the human body. After getting a few extra... appendages, he's not so sure anymore. SC, warnings inside.


**A/N:** I am a very easily distracted person… It explains why I had this done before I finished any of my other ongoing stories. _Bad_ me. This little number that you're hopefully about to read was greatly inspired by a fanfic here called "The owner of a Kitty," an M-rated, incomplete story written by wolfrider14.

**Disclaimer:** Final Fantasy VII doesn't belong to me. I'm not making any money off of it; no copyright infringement intended; whatever else a disclaimer is supposed to include…

**Warnings:** AU-ish, fluff, lack of proper plot, language, (cute) mako mutations, shounen ai/minor slash/Cloud x Sephiroth

EDIT 4-1-10: Killed some typos that made me want to slap myself, and then I somehow ended up looking over the whole thing again... There's very little difference from the original.

* * *

"Cloud Strife, was it?"

Cloud looked up at the scientist briefly before staring at his standard ShinRa boots again. "Yes, sir," he said. As ecstatic as he was about being accepted into the SOLDIER program, he definitely wasn't so excited about the mako shots. Not only had he heard that they hurt like hell, but the lab kinda freaked him out too. There were _sharp, pointy _objects in the lab. And worse of all, Dr. Creepy himself was giving him the shot while all the other newly inducted SOLDIERs were paired up with lab assistants.

Why did the world seem to hate him?

"Ah, yes," Hojo hummed, selecting a syringe from his big box of tools that Cloud refused to look at. "You've got some potential, Strife."

Cloud blinked. "Uh, thanks? Sir," he added as an afterthought. He glanced up and saw the electric blue liquid swirling around in that menacing little plastic tube and cringed, quickly turning his head away again. "Dr. Hojo, sir," he began, wishing he didn't have to suffer through this damn shot, "I thought that liquid mako was, uh, green. Not blue."

"Roll up your left sleeve, boy," came Hojo's only reply. Cloud did as he was told and hissed when he felt what was practically liquid pain being injected into him. Hojo pulled away, and Cloud experimentally shifted his arm a bit, grunting when the pain spread further.

"Fuck," he muttered under his breath, looking up to see the scientist busily scribbling on a notepad. "I'll be leaving then—"

"Hold on, Strife," Hojo interrupted. He looked up then, and Cloud could've sworn that his glasses just did some sort of freaky glint-in-the-light thing. "It'll hurt for quite a bit, but you should be able to tell some noticeable... _changes _by tomorrow evening at the latest." Cloud nodded, more than a bit creeped out at the way Hojo was staring at him like a piece of meat. "If you don't see any differences within three days, come see one of the assistants and we'll work it out."

"What type of changes should I be looking for?" Cloud asked curiously. Did mako really effect a person that fast?

Hojo smirked. "Oh, you'll know."

* * *

Cloud screamed.

No, no, no, no, NO! This was NOT okay! He stared at his reflection in the mirror with shock and disbelief, reaching a hand to the top of his head. His hands brushed a furry ear that twitched slightly, and he let out another girlish shriek.

He whirled on the golden, furry appendage behind him, which, unfortunately, didn't work that well. He spun around in circles a few times before stopping and glaring over shoulder at the thing. What the fuck was he doing with a _tail_? This was the thing Hojo was talking about, wasn't it? Damn it! Mako was supposed to _enhance _him, not turn him into some cat-boy from some boy-love anime!

"Cloud? You okay in there?"

Cloud froze at the sound of his roommate's voice. "Uh, yeah. Everything's fine," he called through the bathroom door. He needed to talk to Zack, but he couldn't quite go out into the open like this. His eyes darted around the rather small room, looking for something to cover these "surprises" up.

A proverbial lightbulb flickered to life above Cloud's head, and he yelled, "Hey, Chris, do you think you can hand me one of my hoodies? I forgot to take it in with me during my shower." Luckily, Cloud _did _often forget to bring some extra clothes when taking a shower, so it technically wasn't a lie, but he typically just went out and got them himself. He shut his eyes, praying that his roommate would humor him just this once.

"What?" Chris snorted. "Can't come and get it yourself?"

"Please?" Activating super cute, you-know-you-want-to-do-what-I-say-even-if-you-can't-see-my-kicked-puppy-look voice _now_!

Cloud heard a sigh through the door. "Alright, pretty boy. I'll get you your stupid hoodie. But you're making dinner tonight."

"Sure, Chris," Cloud chirped happily. He went back to glaring at the new additions to his body. His human ears were gone, replaced with cat-like ones at the top of his head that were the exact same shade of blond as his hair. His tail, which was also the same color of his hair, was about three and a half feet long and twitching every now and again. He gently took the thing in his hands and sort of stroked it, jumping at the tingles of _something _that the action sent down his spine.

That was weird.

Cloud left the tail alone for now, though he promised himself he'd give it a proper inspection later. He leaned closer to the mirror and examined his face. His canines were definitely sharper and longer than they were last night, and his pupils were more slitted than round but hardly noticeable from a distance. In fact, the eyes kind of reminded him of—

Cloud blushed and shook himself out of his current train of thoughts as he heard a knock on the door. This was no time to be thinking of General Sephiroth.

"Got your hoodie for you, Cloud," Chris said through the door. "Didn't know which one you wanted though, so I just sort of picked one. I'm off to the gym now. I'll see you later tonight."

"Thanks, man. I'll see you later then." Cloud waited until he heard the front door shut before he opened the door. Neatly folded on the floor was a black hoodie. _Funny_, Cloud thought, picking it up and looking at it. _I thought I didn't have a black_—

"Why do I keep on forgetting to burn this?" Cloud muttered. The words "_Watch out, I'm an absolute deviant_" swirled across the front of the hoodie in white, and surrounding it was practically an inferno of sparkly, pink flames. A small, bright red heart took the place of the period at the end of the sentence. Cloud flushed; he could still remember Zack jokingly giving the horrid thing to him for his last birthday. "Fuck you, Chris," Cloud growled as soon as he fought down the blush. "I'll be making a pure vegetarian dinner tonight. We'll see how you like _that_."

Cloud put the thing on anyway, flipping the hood over his head to cover his ears and adjusting his tail inside the sweater until it was hidden. It felt extremely awkward, to say the least. Once he deemed himself worthy enough to go outside, he slipped out of his Third Class apartment and made his way through the hallways of ShinRa.

_Here, puppy, puppy_, Cloud absentmindedly thought. _Where are you, Zack?_ It was still a bit early in the morning to be up, but neither he nor Chris had ever payed much attention to it, seeing as how they were both morning people. Zack, however, liked to spend his mornings in his comfortable First Class bed, which he currently was not occupying.

_Damn it, Zack! Where are you?_

Caught up in his pissed off thoughts, Cloud wasn't quite paying attention to his surroundings. He was therefore unpleasantly surprised when he was sent sprawling backwards by a rather solid body. He looked up and saw amused green eyes and a curtain of silver hair.

Gasping in disbelief, Cloud snapped to attention, saluting his superior officer. "General, sir!"

"At ease," Sephiroth replied smoothly. He eyed the blond's appearance, smirking slightly at the words on his hoodie. "What's got you so distracted this morning, Strife?"

Cloud blushed, staring at the floor. "S-Sorry, sir," he mumbled. He tugged the hem of his hoodie down a little, hoping that nothing furry was showing. Unbeknownst to him, serpentine eyes were trained on his every movement. "I was actually looking for Zack, sir," Cloud said, raising his big blue eyes to the general's face. He put on his best kicked puppy look—adopted from Zack but perfected by himself—and continued, "You wouldn't happen to know where he is, would you? He wasn't at his apartment."

Sephiroth raised a fine eyebrow at the blond's antics. "He should be at my office right now. In fact, _I_ should be at my office right now. We had a few things we needed to discuss, but I unfortunately left something in my own quarters." He gestured at the folder he was holding and said, "If you really need to talk to him, I can show you the way there. We're not discussing anything too urgent."

Cloud opened and closed his mouth a few times, but he was speechless at the thought of being shown into Sephiroth's office. The very office of his hero, his idol! His _crush_. He absentmindedly let the general push him along with a hand on the small of his back for a few minutes before finally recovering his speech.

"Actually, sir, it's not that importa—"

"Hush, Strife," the general said, not unkindly. His large hand was so warm against Cloud's back, and the blond had a sudden urge to find out if the rest of him was just as warm. "We're almost there."

Cloud was feeling giddy at the feeling of Sephiroth so close to him and let the man guide him the last few steps past his secretary and into his office. He was suddenly struck with horror at the thought of Sephiroth feeling his tail through his hoodie. Before he could do anything, however, the door opened and Zack was practically yelling at them.

"Gaia, Seph! You call me to come in early and then have the nerve to get here late! If this weren't about—Cloud!" The confused Third Class SOLDIER found himself suddenly pulled away from the general and into Zack's embrace. "How's my favorite little chocobo?" the dark-haired man cooed. He chuckled and said, "I see you've got on my little present for you, but I'd rather be able to see—"

"Don't!" Cloud jerked backwards, away from the hand that was about to take his hood off. He found himself near Sephiroth again and attempted to calm his rapid breathing. "Actually, Zack, that was what I wanted to talk to you about."

"About my gift to you?" Zack asked, cocking his head slightly in confusion. "You know it was just a joke, Spiky, and it's been months since your birthday."

Cloud shook his head. "Not that," he said. He shuffled his weight from foot to foot nervously, unable to meet Zack's concerned lavender eyes. "You see, I got my first mako shot yesterday—"

"Ooh, yeah," Zack said, wincing in sympathy. "How'd that go?"

Cloud shrugged. "The shot hurt like hell," he admitted. "But I don't think Hojo gave me mako—"

"Hojo?" Sephiroth asked from behind him. "Hojo gave you the shot?" Cloud turned and nodded an affirmative at the contemplating general.

"Anyway," he continued. "I sort of, um..." Cloud found himself fidgeting under Zack's inquisitive gaze. "I, uh... I'll just show you." He pulled down his hood and suddenly found himself faced with a gasping, cooing, extremely touchy Zack Fair. Letting out a very high-pitched squeal, Cloud hid himself behind the first thing he could find, which happened to be General Sephiroth himself. He clutched the back of the man's leather outfit and peered out from behind his arm, ears pressed flat against his head.

"Aw, Spiky," Zack whined, limply stretching out his arms to reach for the blond. "Not even one touch?" His fingers twitched slightly as Cloud rapidly shook his head, pressing himself closer to his protection.

"I don't really trust you, Zack," Cloud mumbled, ignoring Zack's pout. "You'll probably get overexcited and try pulling the damn things off."

"Cloud, would you mind if I...?" Cloud looked up at Sephiroth's curious gaze and gave a timid smile, bending his head down and giving the man access to his ears. Hesitant fingers combed through his hair a few times before finally stopping at the base of his ears, giving a small scratch.

Cloud's back arched, and he clung to the man's arm as pleasant shivers wracked his body. Intrigued, Sephiroth continued gently scratching at his ears until a rumbling sound was let out from deep within his chest.

"Gaia, Seph, he's purring!" Zack exclaimed, barely holding himself back from glomping the small blond. Cloud blushed, but he couldn't quite pull away or stop that embarrassing sound. He leaned into Sephiroth's touch, and it just felt so good. "Hey, Cloud," Zack said suddenly, seemingly borrowing Cloud's proverbial lightbulb from earlier today. "You don't happen to have anything else under that hoodie, do you?"

Cloud's eyes were slipping shut and he barely managed a faint, "Tail." He whimpered when the general's arm was removed from his grasp and went to latch onto the man's waist instead, burying his head into Sephiroth's chest. Said removed arm slid inside the back of Cloud's hoodie, gently gripping his tail and pulling it out in one smooth stroke. Cloud shivered; that felt _really_ nice.

Zack whistled. "Hojo's some messed up guy, man," he said, stepping closer to Cloud's gently flicking tail. He grinned at the blond and casually added, "You look cute, Spike."

"Shut up, Zack," Cloud mumbled. He was too caught up in the feeling to properly care about anything right now. He inhaled deeply, senses overwhelmed with Sephiroth's minty and oddly comforting scent. He felt so wonderfully _warm_.

"I'll definitely be talking to Hojo about this," Sephiroth said, malicious intent dripping from his words. He had one arm wrapped around the blond's waist, pulling the purring SOLDIER closer to himself. He looked down at Cloud, his icy green eyes softening at the sight of the boy in his embrace.

Zack watched all of this with one eyebrow raised amusedly. He had, of course, expected that Sephiroth had more than platonic feelings for the little blond when he was called into the general's office to talk about said blond this morning. This, though, was a bit unexpected. Zack grinned. He had a feeling that the two would be just fine for each other.

"Well then," the First Class said, wishing he had a camera or something for a little bit of blackmail. "I promised I'd see Aerith today, so I'll be heading off now. Later, Seph... _Kitty_." Zack shut the door behind him with a soft smile; Cloud was too busy to even notice the new nickname.

Sephiroth looked down at the little ball of cute in his arms. There was no way he'd let go of something as amazing and responsive as this. _No way_. He'd be keeping this blond. But before he did anything...

* * *

_Hojo,_

_ I have gotten a new pet, and I would very much appreciate it if you left him alone. Please keep your hands off of one Cloud Strife._

_ Or else._

_ Sephiroth

* * *

_**A/N:** Ooh, who noticed my little reference to Loveless? (Not Genesis's obsession; the manga/anime. I don't own that either, by the way.) I thought this would be M-rated at first, but I just couldn't get Seph to do it. Literally. ;D Kitty-Cloud, no matter how irresistible (especially to write about), does not appreciate being *bleep*ed on the first date. (Or does he?)

Reviews make my world go 'round. :)


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